From experimental shorts and web series to Hollywood blockbusters and feminist porn, the work of African American lesbian filmmakers has made a powerful contribution to film history. But despite its importance, this work has gone largely unacknowledged by cinema historians and cultural critics. Assembling a range of interviews, essays, and conversations, Sisters in the Life tells a full story of African American lesbian media-making spanning three decades. In essays on filmmakers including Angela Robinson, Tina Mabry and Dee Rees; on the making of Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman (1996); and in interviews with Coquie Hughes, Pamela Jennings, and others, the contributors center the voices of black lesbian media makers while underscoring their artistic influence and reach as well as the communities that support them. Sisters in the Life marks a crucial first step in narrating the history and importance of these compelling yet unsung artists.

Praise

"Sisters in the Life is an act of reclamation, a means of shining a light on the critical work that these women have done with little recognition or fanfare. . . . For those who are invested in the history of representation, Sisters in the Life is worth adding to your bookshelf." — Evette Dionne, Bitch Magazine

"This well-researched title is highly recommended for readers interested in African American, women's, LGBTQ, and general film studies." — Sally Bryant, Library Journal

"Sisters in the Life moves uninterruptedly from strength to strength. Along the way, its stories are eclectic but interrelated, U.S.-centered but increasingly global, alert to ongoing inequities but inspired by past and present accomplishments— and by futures that look brighter all the time." — Nick Davis, Film Comment

"In this academic but engaging anthology, contributors examine the important contributions of black lesbian filmmakers over the past three decades. Finally, filmmakers like Cheryl Dunye, Dee Rees, and Angela Robinson get their due. So too should Welbon (director of 1993’s famed Sisters in the Life: First Love.)" — Jacob Anderson-Minshall, The Advocate

"This is an eye-opening study that seems likely to become a classic in its genre." — Jean Roberta, Gay and Lesbian Review

“Like a VIP invitation to the coolest party, Sisters in the Life provides access to long-off-limits company in the trenches of cultural production and exhibition and reveals how queer filmmakers of color came to prominence and how friendship networks nurtured creativity and access. Yvonne Welbon and Alexandra Juhasz are the perfect guides—for their expertise, knowledge of the archive, and first-hand involvement in the history. For anyone who still thinks that great films appear magically out of thin air, this truth-telling volume will be a revelation.” — B. Ruby Rich, Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz

Yvonne Welbon is the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. She is an independent filmmaker whose films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world.

Alexandra Juhasz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Film at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; the coeditor of A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film; and a documentary filmmaker.